This invention relates to connector arrangements which may be engaged at skewed angles, and which after engagement are rotated and tilted while progressing to a fully mated condition.
There are innumerable situations in which two structures may advantageously be coupled together in a releasable manner. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,214,728 issued Jul. 29, 1980 to Fleischer describes a releasable coupling arrangement for coupling together two fluid channels. In the Fleischer arrangement, the coupling is achieved by a conical head coaxial with a portion of the fluid channel, which mates with a correspondingly shaped cavity, also including a coaxial fluid channel.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,634,926 and 2,634,927 issued to Worlidge and Smith et al., respectively, on Apr. 14, 1953, describe fluid connectors for transferring fuel between aircraft in flight. These connectors include axial fluid channels as does the Fleischer patent, but are arranged with a roughly conical head with convex outer surfaces for effectively mating with a corresponding cavity when engagement occurs at (or from) a skew angle other than precisely on-axis. Such connectors are arranged to disconnect or decouple if a load is imposed thereupon.
When electrical connections are to be made, at least two electrical conductors are required. A common type of electrical connector is the ordinary type N or type BNC coaxial connector, adapted for use with coaxial transmission lines. In such connectors, one of the electrical contacts is made by a conductor which is coaxially centered, and the other electrical contact is made by an annular conductor concentric with and insulated from the central conductor. When three connections are to be made, a triaxial connector may be used. For numbers of conductors exceeding three, the coaxial arrangement is unwieldy.
An alternative to the coaxial arrangement is the polarized connector, such as, for example, an ordinary two-wire wall plug and receptacle. The ordinary two-wire wall plug and socket is not polarized, since it is irrelevant which side of the plug contacts a particular side of the power source. If it is important that a particular conductor plug-receptacle pair be mated, it may be desirable to use polarized or keyed connectors, such as are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,054,080 issued Sept. 11, 1962 to Jepson, and in U.S. Pat. No. 3,629,791 issued Dec. 21, 1971 to Normann. Such connectors ordinarily may be mated only after alignment of the mating keys. Achieving the proper keyway alignment in some keyed connector arrangements is difficult.
Most present-day robots include a single manipulable articulated arm. When only a single arm is available, it is desirable in many cases to be able to interchange the manipulated object for another, as for example by substituting a wrench for a screwdriver already mounted on the end of the articulated arm. When the robot arm is located in an environment hostile to humans, as, for example, an environment near a furnace, it may not be convenient to have a human perform the exchange. Instead, it is desirable to have the ability to disengage the articulable arm from the object being manipulated and to re-engage the arm with a different object under the control of the robot arm itself.
In many cases, the object being manipulated may itself require electrical power, as in the case of a power screwdriver or power socket wrench, and may further include such items as sensors for viewing the area near the object being manipulated, control arrangements or the like. Such additional sensors or control arrangements also require power and, in addition, must be connected for coupling the sensor signals to the controller of the robot, and for coupling signals to the control unit associated with the object being manipulated. Thus, it may be desirable to have multiple electrical connectors associated with the interface between the articulated arm and the object being manipulated. It may be difficult to readily position the articulated arm in such a fashion as to simultaneously align the interface or connector and the keyways necessary to mate the multiconductor electrical connectors. It is to be expected that manipulation of the articulated arm will achieve only an approximate axial alignment and rotational positioning relative to the key.
An interface or connector arrangement is desired which is capable of mating keyed electrical connectors from skewed angles, and which, when mated, is capable transferring substantial structural loads between the sides of the interface.